1. In a medium size pot with water, boil rice cubes for an hour (follow instructions on packet). Remove and leave to completely cool before refrigerating for 2 hours. Rice cubes need to set firmly before cutting.

2. Cut all the vegetables and then blend the ingredients to make the paste.

3. In a medium pot, heat up oil and saute the blended ingredients until oil separates.

4. Add coconut milk and chicken stock, simmer on medium heat.

5. Put the vegetables and bean curd sticks; and simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes. Season well with salt.

Method
1. Marinate beef with a bit of salt and ginger & garlic paste. Stand for an hour.
2. Put oil and add blended ingredients, fry until fragrant and you see the oil separates. Should take about 7-10 mins.
3. Add the spices (coriander,cummin, fennel, turmeric and curry powder then fry again until oil separates. Another 7 mins.
4. Put the beef and water in then cook covered on low heat. Stir regularly every 20 mins to make sure it doesn’t burn.
5. Add the kaffir lime leaves, tamarind, coconut cream, kerisik (shredded coconut) and season generously with salt, pepper and sugar.
6. Cook until it dries out and the colour has darkened. Cooking time should be at least 3 hours.
7. Serve with warm steam rice.

Note: Rendang is best made a day in advance! Tastes really good the day after!

My sister has been asking for satay the past few weeks, and it just never happened. So this week, she firmly said “I’m making satay!” and I told her I’d make the peanut sauce to complement her satay. I’ve never made peanut sauce (kuah kacang) ever, but I was excited to give it a go. Although I’m not a huge satay fan, I do love my satay sauce and we usually eat it with nasi impit (rice cubes). You know how westerners love their dipping sauce? Well, I smother my rice cubes in this peanut dipping sauce. So, I was up at 1am (dont ask why!) cooking this. And I’m glad it turned out delicious!

*excuse the dark poor quality pic, it was taken at night*

I went on google and typed ‘kuah kacang’ and clicked the first link I saw. I’m glad it had really good photos (because we eat with our eyes right?) so I used this recipe.

1. In a large wok, dry fry the peanuts, stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn easily. This would take about 10 minutes. Then remove half of the nuts and put it together in the blender with the blended ingredients. Blend all the ingredients.

2. Using a food processor, process the remaining half peanuts. The consistency you’re looking for is not smooth like a paste, but more texturally lumpy. Just make sure all the peanuts have been processed thoroughly & there are not huge bits.

3. Heat up wok again with oil . Add in the blended ingredients and cook until the oil separates. This should take 15-20mins.

4. Add the processed nuts and 2-3 cups water. Add the lemongrass. Simmer on low for an hour, the add in palm sugar and salt. Simmer for another 20minutes. Make sure to keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.

5. Once 1.5 hours is reached, you’ll notice the sauce thickening up and has darkened in colour. The oil should also separate and you’ll know its ready. Serve with satay and/or rice cubes (nasi impit)

I love curries. Especially Malaysian curries. There are so many curry variations out there but the ones I love most is this malay curry and mamak curry. Mamak curry is basically Indian curry but the difference is that mamak’s version is darker and spicier whereas malay curry is a lot more creamier and sort of yellowish in colour.

Malay curry goes really well with pulut kunyit (yellow sticky rice) but I didn’t have time to make it, so we just had white rice instead, with some prawn cracker and steamed pumpkins on the side. This recipe was kind of put together instinctively, so hopefully I can do justice with measurements because it tastes absolutely delicious. Its great for those who dont like their curries too spicy and want a creamier texture.

Method1. Heat oil and saute onions in a small to medium size pot. Add the spices and fry until fragrant for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the curry powder and chicken and cook until chicken is just cooked.
3. Add water, stock and potatoes. Cover and cook on medium heat for 15-20 mins.
3. Pour in coconut milk and season with salt. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Finally, serve with rice or pratha (roti/bread).

I love a quick and easy stir fry for a mid week dinner! Being at work-at-home-mum to a mother of 2 under 3, leaves me very little time for everything else. You might plan ahead what you had in mind for dinner, but things happen and now you’re left with under an hour to prepare dinner? Just put on a pot of rice and make this simply beef black pepper stir fry. All done in about 30 minutes!

4. Transfer the beef back into the wok or skillet. Stir-fry until the beef is cooked through and the center of the meat is no longer pink, about 1-2 minutes. Dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice.